Method of upholstering

ABSTRACT

A METHOD OF UPHOLSTERING A CHAIR OF ALMOST ANY DESIRED SHAPE BY EMPLOYING A ZIPPER OR A FASTENER WHICH IS ATTACHED TO THE PADDING OR BODY OF THE CHAIR AND TO THE BACKSIDE OF THE COVERING CLOTH OR UPHOLSTERY, INCLUDING THE TECHNIQUE OF ATTACHING A FASTENER TO THE CHAIR BODY WHEN THE SYNTHETIC FOAMING MATERIAL IS MADE INTO THE CHAIR BODY OF THE DESIRED SHAPE BY BEING INJECTED INTO A MOLD, AND THE TECHNIQUE OF CONTOURING THE UPHOLSTERY TIGHTLY TO THE CHAIR BODY NOT BY SEAMING BUT BY EMPLOYING A FASTENER. THIS METHOD MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO COVER THE CHAIR BODY   TIGHTLY EVEN IF IT IS CONCAVE IN THE CENTER LIKE A SHELL, THOUGH IT WAS DIFFICULT OR IMPOSSIBLE TO UPHOLSTER THE CONCAVE BODY TIGHTLY BY SEAMING WORK.

N V- .1971 KATSUYA SHIRAKAWA 3, 7

METHOD OF UPHOLSTERING Filed April 2'7, 1970 INVENTOR KA TSUYA Sl-l/RA KAWA ATIORN United States Patent O Japan Filed Apr. 27, 1970, Ser. No. 32,095 Int. Cl. B68g 7/00 US. Cl. 29-91.1 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method of upholstering a chair of almost any desired shape by employing a zipper or a fastener which is attached to the padding or body of the chair and to the backside of the covering cloth or upholstery, including the technique of attaching a fastener to the chair body when the synthetic foaming material is made into the chair body of the desired shape by being injected into a mold, and the technique of contouring the upholstery tightly to the chair body not by seaming but by employing a fastener.

This method makes it possible to cover the chair body tightly even if it is concave in the center like a shell, though it was difiicult or impossible to upholster the concave body tightly by seaming work.

BACKGROUND OF THIS INVENTION This invention relates to a method of upholstering a chair of desired shape, more particularly, to a method of attaching a fastener to the body or padding of a chair and contouring the covering cloth or upholstery to the chair body.

Hitherto, a chair body was made of wood or metal or hard synthetic resin or the like together with spring or cushioning material. In these days, synthetic foaming material such as foaming rubber, urethane foam or styrene foam has come into use as the cushioning material and moreover it has come into use as the body of a chair, and that xrnakes it possible to make the chair body of any desired shape using the mold.

This method has a strong point in that the chair body itself has softness and elasticity which makes it unnecessary to add the spring or the cushioning material to the chair body. But this method has a demerit in that it is impossible to sew the upholstery onto the chair body. Because of this demerit, a number of approaches have proposed to fix the upholstery to the chair body made of synthetic foaming material. The approaches proposed are adhering the upholstery to the chair body by bonding agent or adhesive or fixing the upholstery with pins to the wooden or metallic frame which is buried in the syn thetic foaming material. But the both approaches have demerits. By the former method, the upholstery becomes stiff by the penetration of the adhesive and by the latter method, soft and light chair body becomes heavy and hard.

With the advent of modern and fashionable chairs of styles ranging from streamlined to the somewhat compleX type included in which is the shell type which is concave at the seat part, it has become increasingly difficult to upholster such chair because of the nature of the synthetic foaming material as wvell as attendant cost of time and effort. Accordingly, there is urgent need for the method of contouring and fixing the upholstery to the chair body of desired shape without spoiling the merit of synthetic foaming material and with less cost, time and effort.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide a method of upholstering a chair of desired shape 3,619,879 Patented Nov. 16, 1971 ice made of synthetic foaming material with less cost, less time and less effort by employing a fastener which is attached to the chair body and the backside of the upholstery.

Another object is to provide a method to attach a fastener to the chair body made of synthetic foaming material whereby it becomes possible to contour and fix the upholstery to the chair body without seaming work or bonding agent.

Further objects and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description which is to be taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings illustrating somewhat preferred embodiment of the invention and in which;

FIG. 1 is a cross section of the mold of chair body with injection hole for the synthetic foaming material and groove to hold the fastener which will be attached to the chair body;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the mold of. FIG. 1 in which the cap of the mold is opened;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the chair body taken out of the mold of FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the upholstery or covering cloth with which the chair body of FIG. 3 will be covered;

FIG. 5 is the finished or upholstered chair body; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of the fastener part of FIG. 3, illustrating the details how the fastener is attached to the chair body.

In the drawings, the chair body 20 is made of synthetic foaming material such as foaming rubber, polyurethane foam or polystyrene foam, and the covering cloth or the upholstery 22 is made of woven cloth or the like. One part of the fastener 26 is attached to the chair body and another part of the fastener 28 is attached to the backside of the uphostery 22. The chair body 20 has a plywood plate 30' at its bottom to which the legs will be attached.

One merit of this invention, as mentioned above, consists in that the chair body 20 is very easily covered and uncovered by means of the fastener 26 and 28. When the fastener 26 is attached to the chair body firmly by the adhesive or the bonding agent, the cloth 32 of the fastener 26 becomes stiff due to the stiffening of the adhesive and that prevents the smooth action of the fastener 26 and 2 8. On the contrary when the fastener 26 is adhered slightly to the chair body 20, the fastener 26 will be detached when it comes into use.

With the method of this invention, the fastener 26 is attached firmly to the chair body 20 by burying the reinforcing cloth 36 in the synthetic foaming material as shown in FIG. 6 and the fastener cloth 26 does not become stiff by penetration of the adhesive or foaming material.

The fastener 28 is seamed to the backside periphery of the upholstery 22.

Referring now the details of the structure and the operation of the embodiment of this invention, the fastener 26 consists of metallic ornament 34 attached to the fastener cloth 32 and the fastener cloth 32 is covered by the reinforcing cloth 36. The reinforcing cloth is seamed firmly to the fastener cloth 32 at the seaming part 38. The remaining part of the reinforcing cloth 36 is bent outwardly. It is necessary that the reinforcing cloth 36 is made of material having elasticity and strength. This is because the elasticity of the reinforcing cloth 36 effects the smoothness of the movement of the fasteners 26 and 28.

In order to attach the fastener 26 to the chair body 20 by burying the reinforcing cloth 36 in the foaming material when the synthetic foaming material is made into the configuration of the chair, the following steps should be taken. First, the metallic ornament 34 of the fastener 26 is inserted into the groove 42 of the mold 40 so that the reinforcing cloth 36 should project in the mold 40. Second, the synthetic foaming material is poured into the mold 40 from the injection hole 44. Then after keeping the synthetic foaming material under controled condition, pull the synthetic foaming material and the fastener out of the mold 40, the chair body 20 with the fastener is made. The fastener cloth 26 is prevented from stiffening caused by penetration of the foaming material because the reinforcing cloth 36 covers the fastener cloth 32 and the backside of the fastener 26. Insertion of the metallic ornament 34 of the fastener 26 in the groove 42 of the mold 40 prior to injection of the foaming material into the mold 40, the foaming material penetrate the reinforcing cloth 36 and the fastener 26 is attached to the chair body with the reinforcing cloth 36 buried in the foaming material. To attach the fastener 26 more firmly to the chair body, it is desirous to pour the foaming material over the remaining part of the reinforcing cloth 36. With this reinforcing foaming material 46, the fastener 26 will never come off from the chair body 20.

The upholstery 22 is made of wooven cloth or the like which is cut and sewn into the shape of the chair body 20 prior to unholstering.

Referring now to the method of contouring and fixing the upholstery 22 to the chair body 20, first the upholstery 22 is fixed to the chair body 20 at the periphery by means of the fastener 26 and 28, then the chair body 20 is covered by the upholstery 22 and finally the string 48 which is attached in the peripheral edge of the upholstery 22 is pulled and tied up at the bottom of the chair body under the plywood plate 30. In this manner, the upholstery 22 is contoured and fixed firmly to the chair body 20.

Thus it will be apparent that it is now possible to upholster chair bodies of any desired shape by employing the fastener when the proper position of the fastener is designed. And this method makes it possible to upholster a chair body of any desired shape made of synthetic foaming material with less cost, time and effort than the method proposed hitherto. Moreover it is now possible to uncover the upholstery from the chair easily and change the upholstery to several differently designed upholstery.

It will be apparent that various changes and modification may be made in the new method of upholstering within a scope of the invention and though it is stated about one preferred embodiment in this specification, the scope and intention of this invention will not be limited by that and it includes many various cases.

And it is intended that such changes and modifications be included within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A method of covering a member made of synthetic foaming material comprising:

attaching one part of a fastener to said member;

making a cover to the shape of said member by cutting and sewing;

attaching a string to the peripheral edge of said cover;

attaching another part of said fastener to the backside of said cover;

fixing said cover to said member by means of said fastener;

covering said member with said cover; and

contouring and fixing said cover to said member by pulling and tying said string.

2. The invention in accordance with claim 1 wherein a metallic ornament of said one part of the fastener is inserted in the groove of the mold of said member prior to injection of synthetic foaming material so that the cloth of said fastener projects into the mold and said fastener be attached to said member with said cloth buried in said foaming material.

3. The invention in accordance with claim 2 wherein said cloth is covered with reinforcing cloth in order to prevent said cloth from becoming stiff by the penetration of said foaming material.

4. The invention in accordance with claim 2 wherein a reinforcing cloth is seamed to said fastener cloth and the remaining part of said reinforcing cloth is bent out- Wardly over which a reinforcing foaming material is poured in order to attach said fastener firmly to said member.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 7/1960 Dickey 297-DIG 1 3/1965 Hood 297DIG 2 FRANK T. YOST, Primary Examiner 

